 Exterior of Galco's Soda Pop Stop | |
| Location | Highland Park, Los Angeles |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1897 |
| Website | Official website |
Galco's Soda Pop Stop is a soft drink specialty store located in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. [1] [2] The shop's predecessor, Galco's Grocery, was originally opened in Downtown Los Angeles by Galioto and Corto Passi as an Italian grocery store in 1897. [3] [4] Galco's moved to its current storefront in Highland Park in 1955. [2] [5] It has specialized in carrying independent sodas since 1995, when John Nese succeeded his father as the store's owner. [2] According to John Nese, he shifted to stocking sodas during a period of poor business for grocery stores; in his own words, "the big chain stores were buying up the distribution channels [and] they just raised the prices and they made sure that no one can compete. So all the little guys went out of business." [5]
Contents
Galco's stocks and ships more than 700 different sodas, many of them hard-to-find and small-batch brands; [1] [4] it also offers a variety of beers, old-fashioned candies, and fresh sandwiches. [1] [2] In 2013, Galco's carried 108 different diet sodas, 68 cream sodas, and 61 root beers. [2]
Among the more prominent sodas that Galco's stocks include Afri-Cola, Bubble Up, Dad's Root Beer, Faygo, Fentimans Curiosity Cola, Green River, Jolt Cola, Jones Soda, Kickapoo Joy Juice, Manhattan Special, Moxie, Mr. Q Cumber, Nesbitt's, and Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer. [1] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] In 2011, a small batch of White Rose Cream Soda was produced specially for Galco's by Natrona Bottling Company as a fund-raiser for the Southwest Museum. [9] [10] Candies stocked by the store include Clark Bars, Lemonheads, Mallo Cups, Razzles, Scooter Pies, Sky Bars, Turkish Taffy, and ZERO bars. [4] The beers it stocks are primarily American craft beers, including Dogfish Head, Fat Tire, Lost Coast, and Russian River, and imports such as St. Peter's Winter Ale of England. [11]
Galco's additionally has a Soda Creation Station that allows customers to create their own personal soda, choosing the flavors and carbonation level before capping and labeling their bottle. [7] [10] [12] Also, since 2011, the shop hosts an annual Summer Soda Tasting event. [10] [12] In 2012, it stopped stocking Dr Pepper products after the Dublin Dr Pepper bottling plant was shut down. [13] Galco's was featured in Visiting... with Huell Howser episodes 811 (in 2016) [14] and 1602 (in 2017). [15]
